Watsonville City Council considers grant for electric vehicle charging project

WATSONVILLE — The California Air Resources Board has mandated that all newly produced vehicles in California have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, prompting many residents to purchase electric vehicles ahead of the deadline. Those vehicles require more charging stations, and the Watsonville City Council will consider applying for funding to install new electric vehicle charging infrastructure at its meeting Tuesday.

Watsonville’s 2021 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan includes a goal to reduce emissions from the transportation sector, which currently accounts for 60 percent of Watsonville’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report by Public Works Director Courtney Lindberg and Environmental Projects Director Toto Vu-Duc. To help achieve that goal, the city became a founding member of the Monterey Bay Regional Climate Project Working Group, a coalition of governments and organizations from Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties aimed at combating climate change. The group is funded by annual membership fees and has hired grant-writing consultants to write collaborative regional grant proposals to fund climate programs at the regional level.

One funding opportunity that presented itself to Watsonville was the Federal Highway Administration’s Community Discretionary Grant (CFI) program, which has $800 million to fund charging and refueling infrastructure along public roads. The Regional Climate Project Task Force applied for the first round of funding in 2023 and was even rated “recommended for funding,” but was not awarded any funding due to an overwhelming number of applications, Lindberg and Vu-Duc wrote.

With a second round of funding coming soon, staff and members of the Regional Climate Project Task Force have refined the scope of the project to make it more competitive. This second round proposal will request a $10 million investment for the Monterey Bay Area, with Watsonville receiving approximately $2.4 million, which may change based on actual installation costs. Watsonville will serve as a co-applicant with other members of the Regional Climate Project Task Force, with the City of Santa Cruz serving as lead applicant.

The proposal calls for an additional 48 charging stations at 10 locations in Watsonville at no additional cost, doubling the number of stations currently in the city. Each location would have at least four charging stations, each with a dedicated parking space. The exact locations have not been announced, but they must be in public facilities that are accessible to the public during the chosen site’s operating hours. Site hosts will also be allowed to determine whether the infrastructure should remain publicly accessible or be prioritized to meet specific electric vehicle charging needs, such as charging for the city’s fleet or rideshare fleet.

If awarded the grant, the co-applicants and a working group of stakeholders would launch a competitive bidding process to select vendors to install, operate and maintain the charging infrastructure, according to the staff report. The selected private entity would also be required to provide matching funds for the project.

“This approach, combined with the regional scale of demand, will ensure that Watsonville benefits from the significant economies of scale achieved through larger projects while ensuring that neighboring jurisdictions also achieve a minimum level of electric vehicle infrastructure development, which will support community members as they travel to neighboring jurisdictions, and vice versa,” Lindberg and Vu-Duc wrote.

The item is on the council agenda, meaning it will be approved in a motion alongside other items considered routine, unless a council member or member of the public requests that it be removed for separate discussion and vote.

In other business, the council will consider the appointment of Tamara Vides as city manager and receive an update on the revitalization of City Plaza.

The council will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the top floor of the Watsonville City Council Chambers, 275 Main St.